Monday, 25 January 2010

Many thanks to those of you who came along and made the Edinburgh People's Festival Burns supper such a great success again this year. I would also like to thank Campbell Martin for his inspiring tribute to Burns' life and legacy, the hilarious Vladimir Mctavish [pictured] and our outstanding singer David Ferrard.This is the third Burns supper the People's Festival has presented and they get better and better, bigger and bigger.

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

January 25th is Burns' night, that unique Scottish occasion when poetry finds itself centre stage and the life and work of an 'Ayrshire ploughman' is celebrated.And this year, with a Westminster General Election pending, we might reflect on the progressive message contained in hi 'Ballad of Mr Heron's Election' where Burn's vision of a democratic and truly representative Parliament written more than 200 years ago still resonates:

Wham will we send to London townTo Parliament and a'that?Or wha in a' the country roundThe best deserves to fa that?For a' that and a' that,Here's Heron yet for a' that!The independent commonerThe honest man, and a' that!

A beardless boy comes o'er the hillWi's uncle's purse and a' that;But we'll hae one frae amang ourselvesA man we ken and a' thatFor a' that and a' thatHere's Heron yet for a' thatWe are no tae be bought and soldLike nowte and nags, and a that

Then let us drink: 'The Stewartry,Kerroughtree's laird, and a ' thatOur representative to be:For weel he's worthy a' thatFor a' that and a' thatHere's Heron yet for a' that!A House of Commons such as he,They wad be blest that saw that.

Robert Burns is that rare breed in Scots life an internationally acclaimed literary genius and political radical. Indeed so potent and powerful is his legacy today that even the Tories, whom he despised and ridiculed throughout his life, attempts to get in on the act. Alex Salmond, never one to miss a political trick, is another. He declared 2009 - the 250th anniversary of Burns' birth - as 'The Year of Homecoming' to entice the worldwide Scots Diaspora to come and spend money here.But the same political establishment desperate to adopt him now did their utmost to destroy him in life and in death.Part of the task facing our socialist movement then is to ensure the full significance of Burns' life and work is understood and enjoyed by new generations of working people. His language can of course initially be difficult to understand but perseverance wins its own reward and the task is made easier when considering the joy he stirs up in others. The United Nations cultural arm UNESCO for example declared Burns the world's first 'people's poet' because he began the practice of writing poetry, prose and songs about the commonplace experience of the poor. This international appeal helps explains why his work has been translated into 40 languages and touches billions.When asked to name his greatest creative inspiration recently, Bob Dylan replied unhesitatingly that it was Robert Burns and his song 'My luve's like a red, red, rose.' Similarly inspired by Burns, although on different grounds, is the celebrated African American author and activist Maya Angelou. Whilst teaching in Georgia at the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960's she used Burns' poems to inspire her young black students with a sense of pride in who they were and what they were fighting for. She recalls how they were 'just blown away' by 'The Slave's Lament' in which Burns conveys with incredible passion and subtlety the anguish of those kidnapped, bundled aboard the 'death ships' and forced to work on the plantations as they yearn for the land of their birth. Written in the 1790's when the conventional wisdom used to mask this evil trade was that 'these people are savages incapable of cogent thought' the poem also confronts the role played by Scottish merchants heavily involved in the highly profitable business.

It was in sweet SenegalThat my foes did me enthralFor the lands of Virginia, - ginia, OTorn from that lovely shoreAnd must never see it moreAnd alas! I am weary, weary, O!

Karl Liebnecht the German revolutionary leader assassinated in 1919 was also inspired by Burns, in fact his dying words were taken from the magnificent final verse of Burns' anthem 'Is there for honest poverty',

Its coming yet for a' thatThat man to man the world' oershall brithers be for a' that

When I was elected to the Scottish Parliament in May 2003 as the new Scottish Socialist Party MSP for the Lothians and confronted with demands to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen, I decided to protest by singing words from Burns

A prince can mak' a belted knight,A marquis, duke and a' thatbut an honest man's above his might,Guid faith he manna fa thatFor a' that and a' thatThe man o' independent mindHe looks and laughs at a' that

They threw me out but I made my point.Burns certainly belongs to the radical tradition and early socialist movement, but it is also true that it was our movement that rescued him from obscurity. Hugh Macdiarmid, arguably Scotland's second greatest poet, did more than anyone else to re-establish Burns' reputation and work. For a hundred years after his death Burns was forgotten. There were no Burns suppers in the nineteenth century, no celebrations of his work, no commemorations of his life and no statues. Indeed the first biography of Burns, written by one of his many opponents, did such enormous damage to his reputation that it sent him into a period of prolonged obscurity. It was Macdiarmid who, in the early 20th century, began to put Burns back in his rightful place atop the Scots cultural ladder.Hugh Macdiarmid was elected as a socialist Councillor in Montrose before WW1 and later joined the Communist Party standing as their candidate in a famous by-election in Perth in the 1950's. The Communist Party in Scotland, through its cultural work over 50 years, deserves much credit for promoting Burns at home and abroad.If everyone is a product of their time and place then Robert Burns' birth in 1759, just 14 years after the second Jacobite rebellion, following the hugely unpopular Act of Union of 1707 and amid the revolutionary ferment in Europe and North America, put him in extraordinary times indeed. He took a keen interest in the world around him. Thanks to the work of outstanding Burns scholars like Patrick Scott Hogg and Professor Robert Crawford we also now know that he was an activist, a participant in that struggle.the Act of Union of 1707 was hugely unpopular in Scotland among the mass of the population who suffered economic hardship and felt betrayed by the merchantile classes who negotiated it. Bankrupted by the disastrous Darien project in Panama the merchants and bankers had been bailed out by their English counterparts on condition both Parliaments united in London. Burns refers to these Scots nobles who signed the Act on terms so damaging to the masses

'Bought and sold for English gold, sic a parcel of rogues in a nation.'

Following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 Scots culture and its tongues [Scots and Gaelic] were repressed by the powers that be in both London and Edinburgh. Wearing tartan was outlawed and the Highlands were subdued militarily. Edinburgh's genteel nobility, in deference to the new arrangements, referred now to Scotland as 'North Britain' and spent as little time here as possible. They considered the Scots language to be coarse, couthy and backward.Out of nowhere then - Alloway in Ayrshire - and into this overwhelmingly subservient, stultifying atmosphere of 'British' conformity came a peasant farmer with a prolific poetic voice writing with beauty, wit, irreverence, intelligence and power on a stimulating array of subjects; lovemaking, farming, beauty, drinking and carousing, the human condition, the environment, fiction and current affairs - and in the Scots tongue!Burns' poems published in the 'Kilmarnock edition' of 1786 caused a sensation. They shook Scottish society to its roots. All of a sudden the effete middle classes were all a quiver, titillated and aroused by the vulgarity and beauty, wit and wisdom, subtlety and humour of this obscure peasant farmer. They could hardly wait to see what he was like. Burns was whisked to Edinburgh, wined and dined, lionised and celebrated. He was the talk of the town at twenty-five. Everyone wanted to meet him, to be in his company.But inevitably this 'courtship' by the New town ladies was not to last. When he continued to write and sing in support of the French and American revolutionaries and the Scots reform movement led by Glaswegian Thomas Muir he was soon blacklisted and victimised. All of a sudden no one would publish his work. Unable to make a living from his farm and with a family to feed he ended up taking a job as an excise man down in Dumfriesshire. He continued to write prodigiously but no one would publish his work. He resorted to sending poems and prose anonymously to the London Gazetteer, an underground newspaper.Scotland greatest literary talent died penniless at the age of 37 on 21st July 1796. Some 50,000 mourners turned up in Dumfries for his funeral.

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Below a letter I sent to The Scotsman today responding to an article about Bob Crow's [RMT] efforts to unite the left in Scotland.

I read Mark Smith's piece in today's Scotsman [New socialist party to fight general election, 14/1/10] with some interest as you may imagine. My interest quickly turned to indignation however as I realised that neither Bob Crow nor anyone else has been in touch with the Scottish Socialist Party about this London based initiative to unite socialist groups in Scotland. No letter, no email, no text message, no phone call let alone the courtesy of an invitation to meetings held 'last week in London' or ' in Glasgow on 30th January'.Such an attitude hardly bodes well for the comradely and mutually respectful relationship required here. Readers will be forced to question the seriousness of such a proposal when the biggest socialist party in Scotland and the fastest growing in the country is excluded in this way.I'm surely not the only person who thinks we need another socialist party like we need a hole in the head. We have too many as it is.Mark Smith, who never made any attempt to speak to the SSP before writing his piece, is also wrong to suggest we are 'warring' with anyone on the left. We are entirely focused on offering working people in Scotland that desperately needed alternative to the 4 neo-liberal, warmongering parties who misrepresent us at Westminster.Over the past 6 months I have been campaigning up and down the country, from Aberdeen to East Lothian on behalf of those 70% of Scots opposed to Britain's ongoing military occupation of Afghanistan. Equally our party is working with others to make the case that it is the rich, the bankers and their political classes who got us into the worst recession in 80 years that should pay for it, not tens of millions of working families as all 4 of our opponents believe.The SSP has enjoyed, as a consequence of our efforts in recent months, our second strongest period of growth in 10 years. We remain committed to left unity, indeed our record shows we have achieved more on that score than anyone else, and we continue to strive to unite every democratic socialist in Scotland under one effective banner worthy of working people's respect and support.

I thoroughly enjoyed the SSP public meeting held in Musselburgh onTuesday night. The packed meeting is the first in a series the SSP hasorganised across Scotland for the coming weeks. The majority view is that weshould bring home the troops and yet none of the parties at Westminsterrepresent this opinion. I intend to carry brief reports of all theforthcoming SSP meetings here on my blog. In the meantime I want to welcomeall those new members who joined the Scottish Socialist Party at theMusselburgh meeting. Welcome aboard the fastest growing party in Scotlandtoday.

Monday, 11 January 2010

The Edinburgh People's Festival celebrates the life and work of Robert Burns every year. But our celebration is unlike any other taking place in Scotland at this time of year. We raise a glass to Burns the literary genius and radical activist with a fantastic evening of politics, poetry, music and comedy. Our radical Burns supper has become so popular it has sold out sold out these last two years. I anticipate the same huge demand for tickets again this year. I've got mine, you got yours?

Friday, 8 January 2010

Article published on Thursday 7 in the Edinburgh Evening News as well as in the East Lothian Courier and the Musselburgh News.

Scottish Socialist Party leader Colin Fox and the leader of Scotland's Afghan community will call for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan when they address a public meeting in Musselburgh next week.

Mr Fox and Mohammed Asif, chairman of the Scottish Afghan Society, will be joined on the platform at the Brunton Theatre on Tuesday by Joan Humphreys, whose grandson, Private Kevin Elliot, was killed in Helmand province in August while serving with the Black Watch.Mr Fox, former Lothians MSP, said the latest opinion polls showed that 70 per cent of British people wanted the troops to be brought home.He said: "Britain has been occupying Afghanistan for the past eight years. Tony Blair said the invasion in 2001 was in retaliation for the 9/11 bombing."We know now, as he knew then, that not one single Afghan was involved in those heinous attacks."Afghanistan has never threatened us yet some 50,000 innocent Afghan civilians have been killed as a result of our invasion."Mr Asif added: "People in Scotland should be in no doubt that Afghans deeply resent the occupation of our country. Whilst we hate the Taleban, it must be our right to replace them as we see fit."The Karzai regime in Kabul installed by the Americans is hated and corrupt."